Providing Trustworthy Advice Online

An Exploratory Study on the Potential of Discursive Psychology in Trust Research
  • Sarah Talboom
  • Jo Pierson
Conference paper
Part of the IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology book series (IFIPAICT, volume 430)

Abstract

The Internet serves as an important source for people who are looking for information and advice from peers. Within search behavior a central role is reserved for trust; it will guide the decision to participate online, to share experiences or to pick up information. This paper explores insights from discursive psychology as a potentially interesting approach for trust research in online peer environments. This allows for a certain shift of focus. Instead of looking at the information seeker, we focus on the information provider: How does he try to present himself – and the information sources he refers to in his arguments – as trustworthy and authoritative? Within this theoretical perspective trust is being studied as something that is highly negotiable depending on context and the effect the information provider tries to achieve. Throughout the paper conversation fragments - collected from an online forum on home-improvement - are incorporated to clarify and illustrate some central concepts of discursive psychology.

Keywords

trust footing cognitive authority experiential knowledge factual versions category entitlements discursive psychology 
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Copyright information

© IFIP International Federation for Information Processing 2014

Authors and Affiliations

  • Sarah Talboom
    • 1
  • Jo Pierson
    • 1
  1. 1.iMinds - SMIT - VUBBrusselsBelgium

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